30 Mar 05 Variation on a Theme

What happens when physical weariness creeps into your spiritual life? (See yesterday’s blog) What if all along the weariness began in your spiritual life and is just now breaching the walls of your physical life? What if being physically tired is just a symptom of a parched soul?

These are some of the questions boiling to the surface of my own personal reflection. In hopes of finding some answers I have returned to The Sacred Romance (B. Curtis & J. Eldredge). The opening chapter includes this quote from A. W. Tozer:

Thirsty hearts are those whose longings have been wakened by the touch of God within them.

There exists a fine line between a hard heart and a thirsty heart. The thirsty heart is no less calloused. The difference lies in the willingness of the thirsty heart, the desire of the thirsty heart to be satiated. The hard heart no longer has this desire. The thirsty heart, as The Sacred Romance maintains, longs to be alive, longs for meaning and purpose, longs to be drawn in by the voice of God.

This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God. We cannot hear this voice if we have lost touch with our heart.

Wouldn’t that make you tired? Losing touch with your heart? Unable to pursue much less identify that which is most important in your life? Failure to pursue any Godly passion for life?

And then the million dollar question:

What is it that I am supposed to be doing to live the spiritual life in any way that is both truthful and passionately alive?

So I’m wondering if the reason for much of our tiredness (yes, including my own) is that nagging thought, that bitter reality that what is happening now in my spiritual life is neither truthful nor passionately alive. And that, of course, makes me wonder what to do about it.